


Stories of the Second Self: Sins of the Father

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [104]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom, crime - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22613659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Terence Judge's marriage to Carol wasn't good, though it still surprised him coming home to find Carol's lover there. Confronting the man, Terence suddenly dies even before the intruder can shoot him. Three days later, Terence awakens to discover he's one of the undead. Still enraged by betrayal, Terence commits himself to tracking down his wife and the man with whom she cheated on him. Terence will enter dark territory, but not so unfamiliar to his prior life.
Series: Alter Idem [104]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Sins of the Father

Why she did it I'll never know. We weren't happy, that's no mystery, but if she had just asked for divorce I'd have acquiesced. Instead, she found a new man and started spending money from our mutual account on private getaways with him. She was slick about it, but he was a fucking moron.

I found some random image on Facebook with his face, and had no idea who he was. However, he posted a photo which included a tag that read, 'Went to an event with Carol Judge. Do you know Keith Odell?'

"Son of a bitch!" I seethed at my phone.

It was during my lunch break when I skimmed my Facebook news feed. I couldn't eat, and just got up and walked out right as they were bringing up my order.

I first drove back to my work, a medical testing lab. Making some excuse, I let my boss know I needed the rest of the day off, and having plenty of sick leave, she didn't argue. Next, I headed home. The kids were still at school, but the younger one would be home in less than an hour. I had to talk to her before that happened.

Yet, talking isn't what she had in mind. Carol wasn't in the house, even thought it was her day off from work, but Keith was. It explained the strange car out on front of the house. I found him in our bedroom sifting through papers in the safe Carol and I kept in the closet. She had to have given him the combination as well as keys to the front door.

"The fuck're you doing in my house?" I yelled.

He freaked, turned on me while reaching into his pants, but-- I don't know. Something came over me before I saw the gun. It's like I couldn't breathe and I became dizzy. I collapsed right there on the spot, but lying on the floor I felt something punch through my upper back twice. There was no pain, because by then everything, even my own body, receded into an infinite distance.

And just like that, my mind turned back on and my eyes opened. I placed my hands beneath me to get up slowly. I'd had a fainting spell a couple times before, so I knew to rise slow and with caution. Yet, the moment brought a pain in the upper left part of my back.

I expected my vision to be blurry, but it wasn't, so I saw clearly how pale my hand was. Turning it over and curling my fingers, it struck me that I had no warmth in my palm. Getting up onto my knees, I then felt at my chest and stomach, and became increasingly aware of a weight around the seat of my trousers. The smell hit me before the sight.

Apparently, my bowels and bladder emptied completely while I was out. Careful of the stale mess around my crotch, I tugged at my phone to get it out. Turning on the screen, I noticed the date. Three days had gone by, and yet the house was completely silent.

"Where are the kids?" I asked aloud, and then caught a hint of my breath.

The whole time since I'd awoken I hadn't breathed until I spoke. Heedless of my bodily disaster, I ran from room to room throughout the house. The kids rooms were quiet with some things missing. Going through their dressers, I found their clothes gone and some of their other possessions. Back in the master bedroom, I discovered the safe was gone.

Keith must've called Carol and told her what he did. I wonder if she intercepted the kids outside the house, because they could have come in and saw their dad on the floor. I had to find out, but not like this.

Stripping down, I went into the bathroom leaving a trail of clothes along the way. However, I was stopped short at the mirror. Time seemed to slow as I stepped closer to study my face.

My eyes had going completely black, and my face was gray with sunken cheeks and temples. "What the hell happened to me?"

And saying that, I saw my teeth. They were all sharp and backward curved. Looking closer, I discovered even my molars had changed. Turning to one side, I looked at my hurting shoulder. Two holes stood out, but the blood was blackened completely. I could feel the slugs shifting around in my lung, but I had no urge to cough.

"I'm dead," was the realization that hit me, and I cried out. "I'm dead! I'm dead, and she didn't care! She had him do this to me!"

I dropped to the floor and bumped my head against the under-sink cabinet door crying. I couldn't feel tears running down my face, but bawled for untold minutes.

Finally able to get a grip on myself, I resumed my plan to clean up. Turning on the shower, I noticed that the warm water glowed with colored I'd never seen before. It occurred to me I’d been seeing different shades throughout the house, and hadn’t thought about it.

Washing myself down several times, I was finally satisfied that no fecal or urine smell was coming off me. Instead, a thin crust of white covered my gray lifeless skin, for that much soap residue lingered after I dried off. Of my soiled clothes, I just gave up on them and carefully loaded them into a trash bag.

Getting a fresh set of close on, I had an idea and went to my laptop. Typing up Carol's social media accounts. Except, she had deleted them all. Keith, however, proved as reliably dumb as before, but on his wall were no updates since I found him in my house. Poking around, I went through friends contacts, and checked where the son of a bitch lived. I had the city and that was it. But the advantage was mine.

"You don't expect a dead man to look you up," I said to the monitor.

A coldness came over me. Not just the lack of body temperature, but another one over the heart. I was going to settle all this out. Someone took my wallet, and a check of my accounts revealed that I'd been cleaned out there also, but I did have a backup plan.

Heading for the garage, I realized that daylight coming into the windows was blinding. Determined, I pressed on and opened the door to the garage. I had a stash of cash for the habit I acquired after getting the lab job ten years ago. The term, I guess, is functioning addict, because it didn't make me miss work and I was able to conceal it from Carol and the kids.

Because of that, I wielded some seven hundred dollars in my fist and my car remained parked in the garage with me. Yet, a thought tugged at the back of my mind. The teeth, daylight being so bright, warmth having its own colors. I was a walking dead man, but clearly not a zombie.

Not knowing anything about mythology or monster legends, I raised the garage door, but stayed away from the daylight coming in. Scattered light wasn't hurting me, or else I'd have known the moment I got up. And yet, reaching outside--.

"Damn!" I yanked my hand in sharply.

The former deathly gray on the back of my hand was the kind of red I'd seen on my son's hand when he reached for the stove and burned himself back when he was three. I stared off to the side in thought.

"Don't you need to be bit by another vampire?" I asked the walls.

Okay, so my great scheme for resolution and answers had to wait until nightfall. For that matter, I realized I was lightheaded enough that I was sure anemia was something I needed to deal with.

The remaining hours of the day ticked by slowly, as I just lay about the house. A couple time I went to the fridge to stare at what little food Carol had left. Nothing appealed to me. Forcing myself to at least try a soda, brought me to the floor spewing it back up.

That's when another sensation new to my experience happened. I felt my stomach brushing up against my unbeating heart. Sure enough, the only food I was getting had to be blood, but from what? When the sun finally went down, I bounded through the house to the garage. On my phone, which I had washed up since rising, I swiped left the call that came as I got into my car with a bag full of clothes and other things.

It was work, which appeared to have been the last seven calls on my phone history, and none from Carol or even the kids. Pulling out of the driveway, I imagined the worse of what she could've told the kids about me.

I knew it was not a good idea to be on the phone while I drove, but hell, nothing bad happened when I did it before, so I didn't worry this time. Skimming through my contacts, I pondered who I could glean answers from. Carol's parents came up, but they might well tell her, so I disregarded that possibility.

Sara? Carol's friend had taken a liking to me, but I had no interest in her. I supposed if the right woman had come along... or just a knockout gorgeous wrong woman, I might've cheated on Carol. Though, I wouldn't have plotted to murder her to get away.

"Hello?" Sara said went she picked up.

"Hey, Sara," I replied, "It's Terence. You wouldn't happen to know where I can get a hold of Carol, do you? She planned a surprise for the kids, but I forgot the address."

"Is that why she suddenly left town?" Sara asked, "You know, I've been trying to convince her that you all needed a family get away, or at least her and the kids going on vacation."

Still carrying that torch for me, I realize as I said, "No, we all planned on it, but I needed to send them ahead because of work."

Sara accepted my story and gave me the name of the place, but didn't know where exactly it was. After I hung up, I started a search on my navigator app. Sure enough, it was a hotel in Keith's home city, and Siri was leading me straight to them.

Cruising along the night roads toward a freeway, I noticed a dog trotting by the side of the road. Pulling over, I then got out and called the dog over. It looked famished, telling me it had been a stray for a long time. My hands went from scratching behind both its ears to choking it out in a hot second. I didn't kill it, but I didn't want it struggling while I did this.

Testing my new teeth along with settling a question of appetite, I lightly sliced through the neck, leaving shallow cuts, and licked at the blood. Except, something in the taste made me spit it out.

"I can't do it," I said, "Animal blood is out, then."

Not sure why I knew that, I carried the dog to the side of the road and laid it down. Patting its side, I could still feel its shallow breathing and heart rate. Though, when it woke it'd be more wary of strangers.

"Lucky for you, I don't hate dogs the way I hate some people," I said to the unconscious black lab.

Back on the road I went. I felt increasingly faint and caught myself drifting across lanes on the freeway. The last time another car blared its horn while swerving around me. I pulled over a second time, and just sat there considering the close call I brushed against.

"Can a car crash even kill me?" I asked, staring at my dashboard.

Then, I noticed that the car I nearly hit had stopped ahead of mine and was slowly backing up in the emergency lane. A big guy got out and put his hand up against the shine of my headlights while looking my way.

He strode closer and called out, "You okay?"

Ye...," I replied back, before cutting myself off. "Ahh, no actually."

I rolled down my window while my head wavered. I hardly needed to act to get him up close. Fumbling with my door, he obliged me that far and opened it to then kneel down.

"Hey, I'm going to call an ambulance," he informed me.

I guess my lids were that heavy, or else he'd have noticed the inky black color of my eyes. Shifting in his crouch, he fished out his phone, and I took my chance.

Grabbing his wrist with one hand, I went for his neck with the other, as I jumped out from my seat. He fell back onto the outside line with me atop him, when another car's headlines beamed at us. By the time I looked, I watched it whip around us with its horn going.

After, I went to work on the guy. I punched him in the stomach multiple times despite his efforts to stop me. I had no trouble freeing my wrist from his grasp. Then, I held both his hands against the asphalt over his head in what people would've thought was the beginning of a rape if they'd saw.

I pulled his head up a little with my free hand and crack the back of it against the road. After that, he gave me no trouble as I positioned him for the bite. Granted, I knew nothing about this, so I picked him up and reset him a couple times, before deciding to have him in an upright sitting position. Then, I tilted his head aside to bite at his neck from behind.

The taste of blood didn't disgust me before, but it was fine cuisine now. You could say that hunger is one feeling I satiated along with the sense of clarity coming back and a weak warmth spreading through my body. The spurting into my mouth stopped, but I didn't.

Picking up his corps, I set it on the hood of my car and tilted him back to drain what I could. I didn't see many cars pass by, but they would've been going too fast to really get a sense of what I was doing. Or, they did see, and realized that stopping to become good Samaritans wasn't the best life choice.

"Ohh," I sighed heavily, once I had my fill. "That is so much better."

With startling ease, I tossed the dead guy clear of the road, and then got back into my car and drove off casually. Not needing to turn on my overhead light, I checked myself out in the mirror.

"Hmm, that is quite a mess," I observed at the red all over my collar with spatter down the line of buttons on my shirt. "Good thing I brought extras."

Siri, my faithful servant, directed me down to the last turn to the hotel Sara told me about. I spotted Carol's car, but Keith's was nowhere to be seen. Either he rode with her or he was coming by later. I didn't know which, but I was going ahead with this now.

Parking, I wiped myself down and switched shirts. I was about to get out, until remembering how I looked. I pulled sunglasses out of my overhead visor and put them on. Then, I opened the door and exited with my bag.

Pacing in through the front door, I saw a night clerk manning the desk. "Need a room?"

"Ah, no," I said while scratching at my upper lip to cover my mouth, still working out the excuse as I went. "Carol took care of that already. Carol Judge?"

"Judge?" he asked, looking at his terminal.

Of course, she didn't use her married name, but would she think to use her maiden name? "Oh, right, try Odell?"

"Got it," he said, inadvertently affirming my worst suspicions. "Number seventeen. I'm guessing that other guy is a relative?"

"We're a close family," I explained, amid rubbing my mouth.

"Enjoy your stay, sir," he said, and passed over a slip of paper with a combination on it for the door.

Turning right around, I went back out. Scanning the fronts of the long buildings, I found room seventeen and trotted up, eager to see the look on her face. Though, as I stood at the door, I remembered that it was night and they were all asleep.

Why should they worry about me catching up with them? With that in mind, I slipped off my shoes and socks. Then, I keyed in the combo and then gently opened the door. Just as careful, I closed it and stepped slowly through the hotel room. It was that moment I realized how quiet my steps could be when barefoot. If fate was going to make me a vampire, the very least it could do was grant me an ability to use it.

One door was ajar, and peeking in I saw the glow of two small bodies and realized they were the kids. Then, I went to the next bedroom while taking in that hotel fresh smell. The door was closed completely, but I opened it without appreciable noise and found Carol in his arms, both sound asleep.

Yeah, this was perfect, I thought as I nodded my head with a grin in the dark. Leaving them snoozing away, I went back to the main room and opened my bag. From it, I got a bottle of chloroform and a couple rags. Soaking both I went back to the bedroom with Carol and Keith, who each had shifted positions.

Standing over them, I pondered where best to position before consigning myself to action. I clamped the rags on their mouths and noses and held them, as they jolted awake and struggled. Per my intent, they lost consciousness, and that led me to get my phone out.

At last, I put a call to Carol's parents and directed them to the hotel. I explained that Carol and I were having difficulties, not a hard sell, and asked if they'd take the kids for a couple weeks while we worked things out. That morning, Carol's parents knocked at the door.

Calling them on the phone from inside, I had them just come in and get the kids, who still hadn't laid eyes on me. Carol and Keith were still in the bedroom with me, and I kept the window blinds down. I waited for Carol's parents and the kids to leave, and then got to work.

By the time Carol came to, I was sitting in a chair at the end of the bed. "Morning honey."

“Oh my god!" she screamed, and struggled against the ropes I tied her up with.

"Oh, that's right," I realized, "You didn't get a good look at me last night. This is Keith's doing," I pointed at myself, and waved a hand over my face, "Though, I'm sure he didn't intend for it. Who got the gun?"

"I didn't tell him to kill you," Carol pleaded.

"You didn't tell him to do a lot of things, but he's kinda stupid that way," I described in brief, deciding she didn't need details. "It hurts me you two did this. I mean, it really hurt. Two bullets in the back, as I laying dying. Or-- I guess that means Keith didn't really murder me. I was going to kick over either way, but still, he shot me. I take that personally."

"What the hell are you?" Carol screamed.

"Shhh," I soothingly said, finger to my lips before holding my hand out to her. "You'll wake the neighbors."

"Help!" Carol frantically looked around. "Somebody!"

"Mmm, I lied." I smiled with strain. "Turns out you're the only people who're renting in this set of rooms. And don't worry about the kids. I got 'em over with your parents. We don't need to drag them through this."

"I'm sorry," Carol pleaded with me. "With Keith, I don't know why, but it just happened. I should've told you!"

Leaning forward, I nodded solemnly. "Yes, you should have. But we're past that now. I'm past it, at least. It's over between us, Carol. I'm walking away. Keep the kids, because they won't understand this thing I've become. I'm not sure what to do for money, but I'll figure out something to support you."

"No!" Horrified, Carol shook her head. "I can't do that!"

"Okay," I conceded and pressed my hands together against my mouth. "Tell the kids I still love them, but that I had to go away. Make up whatever reason you want. You've gotten good at that."

An extra sting that I couldn't help but toss in there, before I stood up and headed for the bedroom door.

"What did you do with Keith?" Carol asks with dread in her voice.

"He'll never come between us again," I answered, and then tossed a clean utility knife onto the bed at her feet.

Going back to the main room, I gathered my things back into my bag and checked out the closer window with care. I threw on my winter coat and started wrapping up my head, before getting gloves on.

Even then, I left the hotel room in a dash for my car. My socks didn't block out the burn of daylight that well. I only got a sense of relief once I had my feet in and the door closed. My window was still opened, and I realized Carol had freed herself.

Her shrieks rang like music in my ears, from what she saw in the bathroom shower. Keith's home-wrecking days were over. Driving out of the hotel lot, I headed west, simply because that minimized the amount of direct sun beaming into my car.

See, my addiction wasn't drugs or alcohol. I developed a taste for killing in my early teens, and it grew into an obsession that took skill to manage as well as execute. That's why I could act cool and smooth when luring the random driver over to feed on him. It seemed someone or something in the world recognized me for what I was and altered my body to match it.

In later days, I was able to find an abandoned building and work out those two slugs. The bullet holes had closed when I fed the first time, but suspending myself upside down I was able to cough them out. I drilled a hole through each one and engraved Sierra's name on one and Danny's on the other, before finishing the necklace they would hang from.

A father's love never dies.


End file.
